What was Zark doing on an oil break when you would have thought he'd be stuck by his monitors until the situation on Arcturus was resolved?

Spectran spies learn everything? Could have fooled me.

The dog…is…flying. And Adrea is saying…."Cool."

Zoltar: "Destroy every building in the city until the tapes are found."

Ummm….Considering the tapes are of a size to be relatively portable, how smart is that? Altho the "Give everyone notice so they can take refuge" (besides Gatch being Franked) can be construed to be something on the line of "I'm a great and powerful warrior, but look how kind I am to the civilians of my enemies. I let them get to where they'll be safe before I attack."

Scads of destruction on the (robot) army and air force.

Yes, Zark, we understand that kindly Zoltar gave the civilians enough time to evacuate.

Hey, they cut out one of the best scenes! G-1, 2, and 5 facing down the PDOS in the city courtyard. And in GoS, G-2 has a great line. BTW, if the area's supposed to be evacuated, what are all those people doing there? They can't all be the "too stubborn to leave" kind. (Where you have to knock `em out and haul `em off." You know, like G-1 and G-2.) Too poor to get out by themselves?

Anderson's telling this guy that two members of G-Force may have been captured by Spectran spies. Even if the guy he's talking to has the necessary security clearance, what about the half dozen around him?

Incidentally, if all five vehicles are aboard the Phoenix, as I expect they would be under the circumstances, shouldn't the guys be able to fire missiles?

Don't tell me: there's NO contingency plan in case the tapes do fall in Zoltar's hands….stinky government planning?

G-3 and 4 in the cell…"Broop-toot…think-tank Zark never fails." So much to say, so little room…

The Spectran soldiers here seem a lot more worried than their Galactor counterparts about killing the wrong girl and boy. Shades of interplanetary vs. terrorist relations?

S-9: "I never make mistakes." She's right about them, unfortunately. Now the guys gotta prove her wrong. And here they come, dummies at the ready.

Mark says that they'd better start combing every street and alley. Cut to the next scene. This still of the city is used near the beginning of the GoS version, Pt 1, while Ace is talking about the model of the wonderful pollution free city. Model city or alien, LawnPark or Bomber's Bay, it still looks weird.

Why is Tiny flying the Phoenix in his civilian clothes?

Zark: A chill in his trigatron? My immediate reaction: Cringe and groan.

At least Mark has the grace to acknowledge that taking the wristbands landed them in this mess.

I guess Zark's good for something -target practice.

So Mark finally figured out about keeping the wristband out of sight in his pocket. And I'm not surprised that Tiny was contacted first; he's the one who principally flies the Phoenix.

What's Big 10? Is it like `roger'? And why is G-5 still in civvie mode?

Why didn't they show G-1 invading the `castle'? Is it because he cut himself on the glass and bleeding or that they didn't want to show the great leader getting fooled by a couple of dummies?

When Mark is talking about going on the squid to get Prin and Key, his face and restrained trembling convey an emotion his voice doesn't.

In between Mark getting upset about asking for the bands in the first place and this point, I get the feeling that there were some clipped clips in GoS. I'll find out for sure soon enough.

Zoltar's gloating that with only three members on board the Phoenix, he'll clobber the ship. Nevermind that often Tiny's the only one on board, and he manages to keep it in one piece and then some.

And the big Z also bragged about tearing apart the city to find the tapes, never mind that, in the great tradition of good guy government documents, it's most likely to be in the big building with the special (in this case, atom) symbol on it. Zark says the Spectran spies must have found out that they were in the Federation Building. First place to look, if you ask me.

Love nondescript suitcases. You can put papers or traps in them, and who's the wiser? Until it's too late. >:-]

What's with Keyop's somewhat inane dialogue at times?

Rescue, Swan sets bomb, and how did Mark get the tape off without her flinching?

One thing I never, ever got. I understand why the squid's tentacles were hollow –lighter, lower material costs, easier to make flexible-and why there had to be different textured spots on the tentacles –for gripping and such. But instead of ridges or something like that, there were big holes on/in the tentacles. Big enough for a human to climb in. If this was a cost-saving move, it was also a big blunder. (Fanfic Chihuahua mech.)

That time bomb hurt. >:->

Why did Zoltar have the idea that he could carry that building out of the atmosphere, all the way thru space, and back to Spectra?

Hmm, a green goon with brains. He was resetting the course before Zoltar spoke. Maybe he'll get a good seat in the escape ship.

I notice they left out the part where the two coffin shaped boxes are put in the crumbling building.

Tentacle makes contact with trap, Chem LX-10, according to Princess. Apparently so new that not too many know about it. (And Zark gets the credit for idea and execution…is this one reason why he makes so many gag?)

Never could figure out how Phoenix got hung up on that rock. I mean, it was powerful enough to shatter it in the first place. I also didn't think the bird missiles could follow a target. (Nice shot, G-2!)

More LX-10 capsules are released into the water. Probably time for the mech of the week to explode…

Yep.

That's a cute exchange: Keyop: "Doot…about Spectra spies?"

Prin: "Demoted to janitors, I hope."

Zark…arch supports….oh-kaaaayyyyy….Gag, Susan…Zark, a genius?

Four more mini-tootsie rolls, two mini-Krackle bars, a Hershey's kiss, and one mini Hershey's bar…Just this episode! Zark owes me….Susan too.

GoS up next…Where's my jasmine tea?

GoS

Galactor's out to destroy the main chemical plant. No "give the people time to run" warning here!

Non-robotic army being destroyed, air force too.

That backbeat would be a lot more effective if it varied with events. As it is, it's just monotonous.

Interesting G-1 vs. G-2 back and forth here: Dirk wants to blow the squid up, Ace says they have to wait til the right time, Dirk says when the time is right, than they'll go.

Hootie adds, "We'll destroy `em."

More not-robot planes destroyed.

Galactor gloating…apparently the armor on the squid is made from two special uranium alloys. PDOS looks really skinny and his mask looks black.

Again the question, do mayor and these guys have the security clearance to know that two G-force members are missing? (At least Brighthead didn't name them!)

Galactor's doing his big announcing thing in the city courtyard. He want G-force and is blatantly lying to the (remaining) citizens. This is where BotP skips to the next scene. But…

A boomerang comes flying and knocks(?) out a soldier (no blood?). Ace is in a bell tower. (No comments about bats, please.) So are the other two guys.

Little boy: "It's G-force!" Mom: grabs him and ducks for cover!

"We and they?" What school of diction did Galactor go to?

Three bird guys clobber about 10 times their number. In under a minute. (surprise, surprise)

Hootie: Clobbers five soldiers at once!

Galactor points his pistol at the three.

Dirk: "Go ahead and fire, Galactor. You can only hit one of us." Love this line!

They're between two and three feet from Galactor. I know that the power of the bullet depends on pistol caliber and cartridge load. Their uniforms seem to deal with ricochet machine gun fire pretty well, but their helmets at least are vulnerable to shrapnel if they are too close to the blast zone. (a la the puppy ep.) And their lower faces are vulnerable.

Galactor warns G-force about the boy and girl he has in his (agent's) custody.

Love the tough guy act Ace puts on here. He pretends he doesn't care what happens to Galactor's prisoners, whoever they are. Really throws Galactor for a loop.

Dirk fires at Galactor. Galactor jumps, Dirk misses, Galactor throws his gun –which explodes like a bomb(?)- and runs for the hills –er, squid. Is the PDOS (courtesy Lori McDonald) the only guy G-2 ever misses!?!

When Hootie mentions that the two prisoners are probably Pewee and Aggie, Ace gets upset about them not having their transpower bands (bad command decision). Dirk looks around at the flattened soldiers and says, "I don't think it's any use asking these guys where Galactor has them hidden." (Which means the GG's aren't waking up soon, if ever.)

When Hootie protests Ace's plan to distract Galactor until they can figure out where the other two are, Dirk says, "Let's follow Ace's plan this time." So many comments, so little time….

Keyop's and Pewee's lines about wishing they had their bands are virtually identical here. Since I couldn't understand what Keyop was saying when he pounded the wall, I can only relate that Pewee is saying he's going to let Ace have it when they get out of there.

Aggie deserves a smack here. Galactor may have eavesdropping devices in that cell, and she and Pewee may not have found all of them. Yet she tells Pewee that if they had been wearing their bands, Galactor would have known for sure that they were G-force. Excuse me!!!! On several levels!!! And no one ever mentions if their pockets were searched, so just maybe they could have carried the bands with them and gotten out of trouble a lot sooner. And for the cherry on the sundae, Pewee AGREES with Aggie that Ace taking their bands was a good idea. A smack for him too!

In-ter-rest-ing. When Veronica comes in, she says she just met with G-force. Uh-huh. Oh, the fanfic ramifications...

Aggie does get a good line here. "What does your social appointment calendar have to do with us?" She also puts herself between Pewee and Veronica.

Pewee also gets a good line. When Veronica notes that two members seemed to be missing, he says, "Maybe they were playing hooky from their jobs."

Then Pewee slips. When Veronica gets nasty, Pewee slips and says she sounds like Galactor. (Does this mean that Galactor uses the male alias Vernon?) :-P Veronica asks how he knows what Galactor sounds like, than says that if they know Galactor that well, it proves their G-force, and they're going to be eliminated anyway.

You know, the ISO/Galactic Security/Institute of Science pseudo-jobs are sounding really good about now. After all, by listening to tapes of PDOS's voice, theoretically agents of the proper organizations would know what he sounds like.

GG-in-street-clothes says that radar is picking up the Phoenix. The frequency that taps in to the cameras on the Phoenix's bridge shows five, altho we only see the back of "G-3" and "G-4", seats and helmets. Veronica immediately wonders what is going on.

As a side note, the female Galactor captain in GoS usually seems to be a lot smarter than the guy in the purple pointy-eared mask.

And Hootie though of the dummy substitution idea in GoS. And I'll say it again –Owls do not get enough credit. Esp. in the Manta Ray mecha ep. Ace has to rain on the parade, quite properly for once, by pointing out that it's only a stop-gape measure until they can find Pewee and Aggie.

Ace is kicking himself for getting G-3 and 4 into this mess in the first place. (bad command decision) At least he's willing to admit it. And it took THIS for him to realize how important the power bands really are!?!?! Wasn't this covered in "Tranformation 101" or something?

They clipped G-1 taking the band out of his pocket and a little of the back and forth, but Hootie (in street clothes on the Phoenix) and him do talk on the bands.

Hootie found the cliff with the castle while patrolling in the Phoenix (something to be said for coming out of the water.) When Ace asks him to look at the top of the cliff, he asks Hootie if he sees "anything fishy." NOT the ep for the word "fishy." Comes across as a pun. When Hootie sees the castle, he says he thinks it's Galactor's secret base.

I think I might have clipped a bit when recording this off the TV. I was zeroing out the commercials, and the way the tape cuts in in the middle of Ace's sentence after the blip indicating where the tape was stopped/started (no one TOLD me pause worked better!) makes me think I clipped a bit just after the original line of commercials.

Ace goes to check it out on his motorcycle. At night. By himself. Driving up the road leading to the castle. In plain sight.

(What is this with him –and it's on other eps too- where someone gets in trouble, he thinks or knows it's HIS fault, and he has to personally make it up to them?)

When he gets up there, his common sense seems to reassert itself and he slips over the wall and sneaks up to the building. Sees two dummies made up like civilian G-3 and 4. He's fooled. Breaks thru the window, gets cut by the glass –right cheek, about two in. below the eye, and right arm-, finds a recording hidden in the Pewee dummy. Apparently Galactor decided that, even if he wasn't sure if two of the members aboard the Phoenix were real, he'd err on the side of psychological warfare and pretend he knew where he only suspected.

And of course, Galactor just has to brag and tell them that he's attacking a particular uranium warehouse and bringing G-3 and 4 along for the ride.

So Ace is back on the Phoenix and tells G-2 and 5 that 3 and 4 are on the squid fricasee ship. And apparently Dirk's been taking time to analyze the armor of the squid, because he says that "we can't break thru the hull even if we use all the missiles we have." Ace decides to sneak aboard and bring G-3 and 4 their bands. He's looking just as upset as Mark, and his voice shows as little emotion.

Unlike Zoltar, Galactor realizes he's being followed. True, he planned that way, but at least he's paying attention to his scanners.

And part of Galactor's target is a stockpile of an isotope called plutonium 239.

Now Ace's voice actor, doing the narration thing, informs us that when powerful energy, like one of Galactor's missiles, (their words, not mine) is applied to it from outside, it becomes an atomic bomb. To add to the fear/freak factor, the camera pans to show us a nuclear plant very near the uranium warehouse. (Than again, where else would a uranium warehouse be?)

The cases of plutonium are falling all over the place…

Well, Galactor's brain is functioning at this time –to a point. He says that all they have to do is drop the tower (uranium warehouse) on the "nuclear power center" and the explosion will destroy LawnPark.

Galactor orders the prisoners put in the building so that they'll blow up too. Two GGs enter a room with machinery on the walls and in the middle two coffins with the stamp of Galactor on the lids. As they bend over to drag (not push, drag) the coffins, two birds clobber them.

And how did G-1 get the tape off of G-3's mouth without her even flinching?

Awww….G-3 gives G-1 a big hug. :- )

Two G-forcers out of the boxes, two soldiers into the boxes.

Pewee asks what took them so long. Ace tells the truth; the guys had trouble locating them. No reason to go into WHY! At least Ace has the courtesy to apologize for taking the bands in the first place!

In this case, when G-3's bomb goes off, it fries the controls for the tentacles. The squid can't drop the tower because of complete control loss; can't even detach the things. Even Galactor has the sense to realize the squid is effectively crippled. And he sees the Phoenix fly by his viewscreen just as he realizes this. :- ) Love his expression.

And Ace announces to Galactor that all five are on board and they're ready and willing to fire bird missiles at the squid if Galactor doesn't set the building down in a safe place and surrender (as if). BUT apparently Dirk's analysis earlier didn't or couldn't include an indepth-scan of the materials the squid armor's made of.

One of the squid's tentacles touches the plutonium and turns to mush…

Here Aggie shows how smart she -or any G-3- can be. She figures out that since plutonium is being stored in the building, anything that dissolves like that on contact must contain uranium. And not just any uranium, but uranium 238. (Definitely better than mooning about how smart Zark is. But how much of that is Gatchascience?)

And Ace realizes really quickly that (uranium + plutonium)critical mass + energy = BOOM! He says, "If it collides with a building, there will be a big atomic explosion." (Gatchascience again? Or just realizing that under the circumstances, the reactor powering the squid might be sufficient energy?)

So Galactor tries to get away as the Phoenix is trying to get far enough away to launch a bird missile. At a good distance (hopefully) Dirk says, "Let me fire the bird missile now!"

Ace replies: "NO! There's too much of a risk that we'll hit the building by mistake!"

Dirk: (in a `just great' tone) "Right." And if he's agreeing about not firing a bird missile, than Ace is right, for once.

Owls are really good at ducking squid missiles. :-)

So Galactor thinks there's a better chance of getting away from G-force underwater. Phoenix pursues, Ace tells Hootie how to do his job. (credit: Ayako for that paraphrase.) Hootie just says roger.

Galactor's bragging about how underwater he's in control. What part of plane/spaceship/submarine is he missing?

Galactor tells his men to manuever the squid out of the way of the bird missile.

Plutonium in the wa-ter….BOOM! (Man, what the radioactivity's gonna do to that part of the ocean….hope the Research or Science or whatever Institute has a way to clean it up.)

Computor is patently upset with Galactor. When Galactor insists he can get G-force next time, Computor says, "that is what you always say…next time." And I wonder if the way Galactor (and Zoltar) are holding their heads in this shot is one of the things that gave people the idea for the GBC to have telepathic powers.

The city is rather fried.

Ace is saying they need to get back and report to Dr. Brighthead, and that they can leave the disaster relief to the UN. (That's gotta be a bone pitched to the "everything's gonna be all right" folks.)

Pewee whines about not getting the mayor's personal thanks that's offered. Dirk points out that they're not supposed to receive special honors as long as the team is undercover. And he doesn't look any happier than Pewee does (altho his annoyance no doubt stems more from Galactor getting away AGAIN). Pewee whines about wanting a medal to put with his softball trophy. Aggie promises Pewee a double banana split.

Ace-as-narrator goes on about how they helped LawnPark without giving away their true identities. (!)(So many words, so little time… Good thing most of Galactor is STU-PID.) And of course, the usual folderol about how everything was soon back to normal, warm fuzzies all around.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, including but not limited to Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc., Saban Entertainment, Hearst Entertainment, Turner Program Services and/or Tatsunoko Production Co., LTD. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.